Thursday, November 19, 2009

It's Official: Campagnolo New 11 Speed 12-29 Cassette

There were many question marks about our story about Campagnolo's plans to introduce an 11 speed cassette that would include a 29. The beauty of this is that it would be possible to have the same range of a triple in a much simpler compact configuration.

Here are the new details from Campagnolo:

For the 2010 component range, Campagnolo presents the brand new 12-29 cassette for 11-speed drivetrains. The new cassette exceeds the 28 teeth of the sprockets offered by the competition and enables the 11-speed drivetrain to be even more versatile.

In fact, the new 12-29 combination used with a compact 50-34 crankset generates metric developments analogous (2,49/8,84m) to those of a 53-42-30 triple crankset. And that's not all. The use of a compact crankset in place of a triple makes it possible to obtain better chain alignment and a big reduction in weight, a crucial factor when you're confronting those really demanding climbs.

And all this without even having to fit a dedicated derailleur!

The really big news is that Campagnolo has managed to keep a single rear derailleur configuration, thereby avoiding the problem of the double option: derailleur with medium or short arm. So there is just one rear derailleur and it can work precisely and optimally from sprocket 11 to sprocket 29 with all the combinations of Campagnolo 11-speed cranksets available.

This means that you won't have to purchase a new 11-speed rear derailleur but just fit the 12-29, take off with your bike and challenge the big climbs.

The 12-29 cassettes will be available starting from November 2009 for the Super Record™ and Record™, and from February 2010 for the Chorus™.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,000 stories in this blog; the search feature to the right works best for finding things in the blog.